


Throughout the Years

by Lady_Jae (misskorya), misskorya



Series: Life of Lena Luthor [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Birds of Prey (Comic), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:53:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22708783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misskorya/pseuds/Lady_Jae, https://archiveofourown.org/users/misskorya/pseuds/misskorya
Summary: At forty-nine years of age, Lena Luthor had thought she had it all figured out but as she looked back on the years and examined them. She realized, she's not really figured much out at all and has only really been moving in a very automated pattern of life. From evil genius villain to tech guru hero, and she's fallen somewhere in between. Two failed marriages, and the constant alcoholism has not helped her mental state at all. Maybe, however; maybe hope is just around the corner as long time friend and lover Nyssa helps Lena find her footing in life once more.(SuperCorp Shippers Beware: This is not your happy-go-lucky story)
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Lena Luthor/Jack Spheer, Nyssa al Ghul/Lena Luthor
Series: Life of Lena Luthor [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633309
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. Early Fall 2012 - 42 Years Old

**Author's Note:**

> A series of experimental writings as I haven't quite found my footing with this universe. I have a concept and I'm steadily working on that concept. I wanted to take what I knew from the comic books, the animated series, movies and television shows and somehow mishmash them into something that satisfies what I'd like to see. My grammar is probably terrible, especially my commas. If anyone is willing to step up and edit/beta read then please let me know via Tumblr @ MissKorya. I do want to mention that tobacco use and alcoholism, are mentioned and explored as well as addiction. So if you are struggling with this, please, please find help - there is help out there. You are worth it.

Lena walked out onto the balcony of the flat she shared with Nyssa. Gotham’s midnight blue sky seemed to go on for miles, the moon hung so still in its picturesque corner. The balcony’s railing was just high enough to rest her elbows out between the bars. Her chin rested on the higher of the two bars and watched the city below move. Streams of lights as traffic moved, the wail of sirens blaring through the night cutting through with a haphazard shape.

Gotham was different from National City in a lot of ways. Good and bad, she supposed, mulling over the recent revelations. It was a lot to take in at once, and Lex didn’t make it easy. Mocked her for it, she wanted so much for there to be a drink in her hand right at the moment.

Drinks weren’t a thing in the flat. Nyssa wasn’t a drinker and foresaw Lena relapsing into alcoholism. It was perhaps one of their fiercest arguments yet, and she was better for it. Nyssa was sleeping last Lena recalled, the balcony was attached to their bedroom a convenient location done this way by design. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed that Nyssa was headed in her direction.

Bare feet on the floor the former assassin ran a hand through her hair. Lena turned her attention back to the city. She felt Nyssa’s arms slipped around her waist, and at once the billionaire stood up straight and melted into her lover’s embrace.

“It’s four in the morning,” muttered a half-sleepy Nyssa, her voice groggy still as it caught up with being awake. “Come back to bed.”

“I will,” Lena answered with one hand over Nyssa’s and the other on the railing. 

Nyssa buried her face in Lena’s hair. 

It had been her idea to take Lena out of National City. The Luthors were prone to catastrophic dramatics when hurt and Nyssa refused to see Lena make a monster out of herself. Nyssa hadn’t been in the best of places either, but she knew that Lena needed support.

The Clocktower offered that support, part-superhero hideout, part-apartment, and full-time emotional rehabilitation. Barbara Gordon ran the place, the woman was quick to remind Lena that she wasn’t the only one with multiple doctorates. Nor did it matter if you were the smartest woman in the world if you couldn’t understand and work through your emotions.

A low-pitched whine from the flat brought Lena back to reality. Lady was a sweet dog, a mixed breed dog with tan-colored brow marks and a white fluffy chest with soft brown and beige coloring. A tail that had a slight curl, Lady was no more than forty, forty-five pounds at best but still made her presence known. “Now she’s up.”

“Mhmmm, I’m sorry,” Lena apologized.

Nyssa untangled herself from Lena and moved to rest her elbows on the railing only this time she would be facing her lover. Her back to the city below as she looked over to her left, an ashtray with a still lit cigarette. “I thought you were done.”

“It’s my last one, swear.”

“Mhmmm.”

The brunette picked up the cigarette and drew in a breath, a bright orange tinged the end of the cigarette. Nyssa felt the smoke coalesce within her before she exhaled. “At least we’re not picking at the bottom.” She said of the brand, “Newports huh?”

“I wasn’t in the mood for top shelf,” Lena remarked, “not at the moment anyway.”

Smoking was a terrible habit. She picked it up when she was in college, it was a way to get through exams and keep her hands busy. Now she slid back whenever she felt overwhelmed by life, emotions - whatever it was at the time. 

Nyssa went along with it, smoking and by extension drinking bothered her a lot. As an undercover operative though she learned to deal with it. Lena needed something, and admittedly the girl from Nandar Parbat had a thing for hookahs. “I could’ve gotten it out for you.”

“I know.” 

Lena’s voice was flat, her mind was still trapped in whatever distant memory or thought plagued her now. Nyssa passed the cigarette over to Lena, and in a single motion, the cigarette now rested between the Irish woman’s lips.

The roar of the cars below didn’t seem to dissuade either of them. Nor did the sound of the train rumbling in the distance. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to run through employee background checks.”

“Mhmmm.”

“James tells me the daycare program is a success.”

“As it should be,” the former assassin complimented, “you built it from scratch, and implemented something many companies wouldn’t dare, especially for the low paid workers.”

“They’re the most important,” Lena stated matter-of-factly, “I can hire all the top tier grads out of college that I want, but in the end, they don’t make my company.” She took a drag of the cigarette and Nyssa watched as it transformed into ash. Smoke blossomed into the air, puffs disappeared into the night. 

Lena tapped the cigarette into a nearby ashtray, and at that moment her lover couldn’t help but be mesmerized by her alabaster toned skin with the moonlight dancing across. “I heard Bruce and Selina were so impressed by it that they want to implement it throughout Wayne Enterprises.”

There was a scoff, followed by an eye roll and another drag before the cigarette was passed back to Nyssa. “Of course they are.” A small bit of indignance could be heard but was quickly passed off. “Not that it would be so terrible, honestly. I knew they had a program but perhaps it wasn’t so well thought out.”

“Probably not, but we need more executives like you.”

A faint chuckle but it was hard to tell the tone, and yet there was more of an underline than an exclamation. “Truth.”

Nyssa plunged the cigarette into the ashtray. Her eyes followed the embers as they danced in the tray, the once bright orange glow now dulled into a gentle amber hue before going out. She moved herself away from the railing and stretched, Lady by this time decided more drastic measures needed to be taken. 

Lena felt the cold of the dog’s nose against her leg. 

Lady sat on her haunches and moved a paw toward one of her humans. 

Nyssa smiled and watched the interaction.

Lady was an unexpected gift, one of Lena’s former employees who would not be able to take the dog with them across the country. At the time Lady was eight weeks old, and Lena needed companionship. So when Nyssa and Lena had decided to finally make a go of their will-they/won’t-they status. They were a packaged deal, Lady and Lena or nothing at all. 

Nyssa loved animals so it was an easy choice, and she loved Lena - but that had yet to be revealed. Even now, Lena had no idea the amount of love that Nyssa held for her. Lady whined, and Lena turned away from the city view, “alright, alright, you win Lady. You win.”

She pushed herself away from the railing and turned. Lena’s delicate feet carefully padded back to the bedroom. She paused somewhere just beyond the sliding glass door and the bed, “Nyssa?”

“Be right there,” Nyssa replied as she gave the skyline one last glance. 

The former assassin crawled into bed, her legs feeling the cool-to-the-touch sheets. Lena laid on her side back to Nyssa but a hand felt for her. Nyssa curled up into Lena, the big spoon, and intertwined her fingers with Lena’s. Lady settled for plopping herself somewhere between their feet and the edge of the bed. 

Gotham traffic, the wail of sirens, the honking of horns and the distant rumbling of trains were the soothing sounds of a city lullaby. Luring both women to their rest, dreams awaited them both but they would hardly be much of anything in the morning. Stars would cling to the deep hues of Phthalo blue and Prussian blues across the midnight black.


	2. Late Fall 1997 - 27 Years Old

Lena Luthor’s life had been turned upside down within the span of a year. A person whom she felt a friend and indeed a confidant had turned out to have lied to her for the past three years. If that had not been enough to send the emotionally driven woman in for a spiral of emotions, the figure then, finding out that there had been a project that involved your DNA. In the case of one Lena Luthor it was not just her DNA, but the DNA of this friend, who was indeed, Kara Danvers.

Kara Danvers, Supergirl a woman who provides a mix of emotions for Lena and with whom she now shared a child. A child, who had been intended to be the next Kon-El, the next Project X by Cadmus Laboratories. If it had not been for the investigative skills of Kara’s sister Alex, director of the DEO this child’s fate could have been death, or worse as a tool of either Lilian or Lex Luthor. 

It was a life or death decision, take the child from her failing incubator or inject a serum that would in effect, kill the child in her sleep. The child, a mere babe had not asked to be in the world and neither did either of her mothers ask for her to be there. They had been violated, their DNA used without consent and yet here before both a decision had to be made. 

It was 1996, and Lena Luthor was twenty-six and Kara, slightly younger at twenty-three. Alex knew the pressure they were under and would not hesitate to allow the child to sleep, as it were. This was not to be so, as something within Lena’s own heart lurched forward at that moment, she spoke the words, “give her to me.”

A phrase that indeed shocked the team present on that day, but the words were from Lena’s heart and now, one year later. She and Kara were on their way to spend the holidays with Kara’s mother, Eliza. Their daughter, named Lorelei Kieran Danvers babbled in the backseat of their Mercury Mountaineer. No, neither of them had asked for this, and indeed they would have been well within their right to allow Lori to pass in her sleep.

Neither of them could bear the thought of their lives without Lori.

Sweet Lorelei.

Lena did not want to consider what dark path she could have been on if she Lori had not come into her life. Lori loved without judgment, Lori did not care that Lena was a Luthor nor did she care that Kara was a Super. Lori only knew love and only gave love, an emotion that had eluded Lena for most of her life. An emotion that had been used against her, and in the hands of an infant she had been and is still being taught the meaning of unconditional love.

To say that Lena and Kara have simply patched it up, would be a gross oversimplification. As the SUV cruised along the backcountry roads in upstate New York, with the crisp Autumn air washing over the car. Their colors reflected upon the windshield, the lingering ill feelings of the day that Lex brought forth the facts of Kara’s dual identity held a grip in the back of her mind.

A grip, Kelly Olsen had been and would continue to work with Lena and Kara on. Taking on a therapist and one so close to the family exposed Lena in more ways than she cared to admit, but it was the right step. The right step for not just for herself, but for her daughter who now depended on Lena for everything imaginable. 

Kara’s hand tapped the steering wheel lightly, while Lena hummed along to the Cranberries disc that sat in her ‘fancy’ six-CD changer radio. A feature she happily paid to have in her SUV, she hummed and played with her hair. A quick look over her shoulder to check on Lori, Lori happily looked her way. Lena couldn’t help but smile at her daughter’s hazel eyes, “hello gorgeous.” She cooed and earned a laugh for her efforts.

The blonde added with a smile, “and she knows it.”

“She should know it, she’s the most beautiful girl in the world, aren’t you Lori?”

Another giggle followed a high pitched, “mama!”

Kara could not help herself, the laughter that unfurled was light and warm, “yeah that’s right Lori, mama - where’s mama?”

“Stop you’ll confuse her.”

“She knows which one of us she wants, trust me,” Kara replied with a single gesture. She pressed her glasses up from the tip of her nose before her hand returned to the steering wheel. 

Indeed, the past year has been a whiplash of emotions, a roller coaster that held no end in sight.  
Late-night arguments and the tearful shouts with rather colorful phrases from Lena. “So, Kara, just how many people are going to be at your mothers?”

“I think there might be twelve of us? Lets see, us three, Alex and Kelly, J’onn and his niece M’gann, oh and, Clark of course, Clark, Lois and Conner- and probably Martha, yep, twelve, thirteen including mom, a baker’s dozen!” Kara declared perhaps an octave more excited than what she meant.

Lena’s anxiety shot through the roof and it would not matter the song on the radio. Twelve people, and of those people Superman himself. She exhaled loudly, and honestly, she should have expected Clark. Still, Lena refused to let Lori miss out on holidays with the Danvers. Holiday traditions weren’t nearly as warm or existed, even, in the Luthor house - unless you counted the drinks Lionel took until he was out cold in his office.

Or the number of times Lena sat at boarding school with one or two other girls who hadn’t been brought home for the holidays. Kara on her part could sense the anxiety, “you know we don’t have to stay at mom’s we could go to a hotel or-”

“Nonsense,” Lena shot back in a quick reply, “we’ll stay at your mom’s it’s fine.” It wasn’t but Lena wasn’t going to admit that at least not here, and not now. 

Kara got the feeling that it wasn’t and tried to feel out what exactly Lena’s issues were, but asking Lena directly required more courage than the girl of steel could muster. “Lois and Clark will be in the guest house, so you do not have to see them all the time.”

“Kara, it’s fine.”

This time Lena’s tone sent a clear message, and Kara stopped prodding. Instead, she pressed her lips together and even Lori’s babbles stopped - she could feel that something was up. “I just, it’s a lot.”

“Yeah, it is-”

Lena held her hand up for Kara to stop talking, “but I refuse to sit any of this out and have Lori miss this.”

Nor did she think it reasonable to spend her holiday apart from what was otherwise a very welcoming home. As odd as it sounded, and as upset as she was at the idea that all of these people concealed Kara’s true identity - in her heart of hearts she knew it was not out of malice. Even if she still felt some kind of way, Lena took another breath and exhaled, “I just...”

“Need time to yourself, it’s okay and that’s understandable this year has been... it’s been a ride.”

Her eyes widened at the sound of Kara’s words, “that is an understatement.”

“Nana?” Chirped Lori from the backseat.

Lena smiled and Kara did as well, Lena turned back to look at her daughter, “yes we are going to Nanas.”

Again something that was nonexistent for the Luthor family, a trip to grandmother’s let alone other relatives. She ran her hand through her hair, this all felt so overwhelming and somehow she was expected to take it in stride and all Lena wanted to do was scream. 

The reflection of leaves along the windshield had faded as Kara turned onto a gravel road where the Cape Cod-style home sat with its Craftsman-influenced windows. A wrap-around porch and where a picturesque view of Lake Ontario greeted them all as the SUV came to a stop.

The Danvers house rested on a soft incline, and in front of the house was Eliza Danvers herself. Lena let out a sigh of relief, Eliza seemed to have the greatest sense of intuition out of the Danvers women. It didn’t take long for Eliza to greet both Lena and Kara with smiles and hugs, and just as Kara worked to retrieve Lori and her car seat. 

“How are you feeling?” Eliza’s tone underscored exactly why Lena would always cherish the older Danvers. A reassuring hand along her shoulder added to this point. Lena found herself caught on words and she wasn’t sure if it was Eliza’s disarming smile or the tone of voice that did it. “I see,” Eliza remarked knowingly, she patted Lena on the shoulder a gesture for her to stay a moment.

“Alex! Come help Kara with the baby!” Eliza called toward the house.

Alex could be seen pushing her sleeves up, “what the girl of steel can’t handle a baby carrier?”

“Alex.” Eliza all but chastised in a single noun. Her brows slightly arched in the manner one might expect from their mother when they knew better. A more than an audible sigh from Alex, but it was gone faster than a Barry Allen sprint to Coast City Pizza.

“Hey tiger,” Alex cooed to her niece, “who’s the best supergirl ever? You are!”

Kara scoffed, “jeez Alex are you sure you’re not an aunt?”

“Oh I’m totally sure I’m giving her back once she poops.”

“You’re funny.”

“Oh but mommy’s really funny if she thinks auntie Alex is changing your diaper, tiger,” Alex remarked to her niece as she carried the car seat into the house leaving Eliza and Lena to their own devices.

Eliza gestured toward the gazebo, Lena pulled her cardigan sweater tightly around her waist. She waited maybe a second or two before letting out something that resembled a sigh of relief. Lena could never truly express just how grateful she had always been for having Eliza Danvers in her life, she could scarcely imagine living without her wisdom.


	3. Late Spring 2019 - 49 Years Old

Arriving in Gotham was rather uneventful and all Lori wanted to do was crash. An opportunity to do so presented itself once she arrived at her mother’s apartment. Classical music blared from her room and it was a sign to her mother that she wanted to be alone. Lena meanwhile joined Nyssa in the kitchen as the sounds of a heavy spring rainstorm collected against the apartment’s windows and balcony. 

Lena lived with Nyssa at the Clocktower, a rehabilitation center, home and base of operations for one particular group of vigilantes. Vigilantes lived on the upper floors, while at least ten if not fifteen floors of storage separated them from the general populace who occupied the lower levels. Low-income apartments along with services, amenities, and anything else someone looking to get on their feet might need. Barbara Gordon was a good landlord, and social worker, a woman who boasted as many if not more doctorates and degrees than Lena. A woman who not only ran for Congress but had been elected twice before stepping down on her own accord.

Nyssa set a kettle on the stove, “you’re thinking too loud.”

“Sorry,” Lena apologized. She had been leaning against the island in the kitchen looking out the windows of the living room. 

“No apologies necessary habibti you know that.” Nyssa pulled her cardigan over her shoulders a little tighter as she went to stand beside Lena. She brushed loose strands of hair behind her lover’s ear and gave the woman a gentle kiss on the cheek. “What is important now is that we’re home, we’re safe and so is Lori.”

Lena agreed with Nyssa and smiled warmly, “you’re right, and if I know Lori she’ll be hungry when she gets up.”

“Sounds like a pizza night, don’t you think?”

Lena shifted her attention away from the rainstorm that littered the living room windows with droplets to Nyssa. “Pizza sounds amazing - especially if you’re making it.” She leaned in and gave Nyssa a quick kiss on the cheek.

Nyssa smirked and moved a little closer, “mhmm yes I can make it, but I might need a little help...” Her words trailed off as she pressed her lips against Lena’s. Lena welcomed Nyssa’s kiss and wrapped her arms around Nyssa’s neck. She felt the other woman’s body pressed against hers and in a swift motion, she found herself between Nyssa and the counter. 

“Mhmmm, as much as I would love to-” Lena spoke into the next kiss, “-continue, because” as much as she so wanted Nyssa’s hands and lips. Their current situation forced her to reevaluate such notions. “I love you, and this is...”

Her lover broke their embrace, “not the time I know but...”

“I’m not going to blame you for taking an opportunity,” Lena replied with a smirk. “So pizza, what do we have available?”

“Let us take a look...” Nyssa’s voice now trailed away as she moved to the pantry and began to look at their food stock, meanwhile Lena investigated the fridge. A look from one to the other made it clear that they did not have the ingredients necessary to make pizza. Usually, they would have ordered and picked it up themselves but with Lori - no one singular pizza would really do it. Add that the day had been stressful enough and that made for one half-Kryptonian appetite that would need a lot of pizza.

“Barbara.” Both Nyssa and Lena said simultaneously because if anyone in that building would have a stocked fridge and the facilities necessary to feed a half-Kryptonian, it was the one and only Oracle herself, Barbara Gordon.

The kettle then began to sound and Nyssa moved to get the teacups, while Lena excused herself to check on Lori. Lori wasn’t asleep but laying on her bed and looking up at the ceiling, and at that moment Lena did not see Lori the twenty-three-year-old, she saw Lori the three-year-old. Who had to go everywhere Lena went, a trait that didn’t really go away until she was eleven, and suddenly Lena wasn’t Lori’s hero. 

All the questions, all the please-play-with-me that Lena would inevitably accept. Only to find that Nyssa had already been in the middle of whatever tea party or game Lori had in mind. Absent-mindedly Lena’s hand went to her heart she stood there against the door’s frame watching silently.

“I can see you,” Lori muttered under her breath as she scrolled through her social media feeds.

Lena cleared her throat and crossed the distance between the door and Lori’s bed. “Sorry I just wanted to check on you, mind if I-”

“Go ahead.”

While she sat along the edge of Lori’s bed, Lena admittedly hated this tone from Lori that empty, matter-of-fact with a side of could-not-care. “So Nyssa and I-”

“Barbara’s, pizza, yep I heard you.”

Lena took in a deep breath and exhaled, “put the phone down, please.”

Lori exhaled with exaggeration and set her phone down on the nightstand beside her bed. She shifted her attention to her mother, hazel eyes softened under the light. Lori’s jaw was clenched tightly, emotions boiled to the surface, and Lena could see the storm brewing within her daughter’s eyes. A flurry of thoughts that no doubt had their way with Lori’s mind. “You don’t have to pretend Lori, we’re not at Grandma Eliza’s. You can cry, you can scream - please.”

It took darkness to see darkness and it wasn’t a Luthor thing. “Do you want me to go? I can give you more space.” It was a human thing.

“No.” Lori quietly let out and looked up at her mother as tears threatened to spill. 

“Lori.” Lena whispered in a hushed maternal tone, she moved toward Lori and was met by a tearful girl who wanted nothing more than to just be normal. All Lori had ever wanted in her life was just to be this normal girl who wasn’t half-Kryptonian, who didn’t know the community of heroes and villains. Who didn’t have such a heavyweight legacy to carry either as a Kryptonian on Earth or as a Luthor. Being hunted for what she was, who she was - whose child she was or because of her last name. 

Lori drew in a breath and then let out an exhale as if she’d been holding her breath for the last hour. “All I’ve ever wanted was to live like a normal person, to pass for normal and not have to deal with being this freak of nature clone that everyone insists on attacking.”

Hearing her daughter refer to herself in such a manner was unacceptable, “don’t call yourself that.” Lori looked at her mother, Lena’s voice had grown harsh around the words, “never- refer to yourself as anything but my daughter because that is who you are.”

Lori replied with a groan, “but I’m not just you, I was someone’s experiment to see if they could make Conner again - but better and easier to control.”

“You may have started out in this life as a clone, but Lorelai Keiran Luthor-Danvers you are anything but, do you understand me?” Lena hadn’t noticed that she had moved closer to her daughter, she tucked her hand beneath her daughter’s chin. “You are so important and not just to me, or to your mom. There is no one else like you on this planet or on any other.” All those years ago when Lena hadn’t been sure what made her decide to choose life over death - it all seemed to come to a head at that very moment. “You are my daughter.” Lena’s own emotions threatened to reveal themselves as she choked on words. Lori looked at her mother and her own expression changed. She said nothing in return for there was nothing else to say and instead she thought on what to do next.

Lori changed everything for Lena.

At perhaps the darkest time in Lena and Kara’s relationship, the former had come to a tipping point. Lena honestly wasn’t sure what would have happened otherwise nor did she want to know. The idea that she could have become a typical revenge-seeking Luthor didn’t sit well with her. Silence reigned between mother and daughter, Lori shifted around in her bed. She moved to give her mother a side hug and placed her head on her mother’s shoulder.

Lena held her daughter and quietly suppressed any tears or emotions that threatened to break. Together they sat without a word letting one and the other collect themselves. Lori’s singular goal of normality had been a lifelong quest, and while Lena understood and could indeed empathize with it. She knew far better than Lori perhaps that that was perception. Their normal was different than someone else’s normal and that was okay, but to hear Lori speak this way. To hear Lori speak like this at all drew out part of Lena that she did not like - the part that broke. 

She chose to focus on the reason why she came in here, “let’s head up to Barbara’s and see about food and maybe some Downton Abbey with her and Cassandra, how about that?”

“Only if we avoid season three completely.” 

“Deal.”

Residents of the Clocktower who were part of the Community were usually far and few between most didn’t stay. They came and went, Tatsu Yamashiro, Sonia Sato, and Kate Spencer were among those that were much like the seasons. Mari McCabe was much in the same way, coming and going when necessary either for her or for Barbara. The only true residents were Nyssa, Dinah, Zinda, and Helena and the latter split her time between Gotham and Scilly. 

Community residents had access to a particular elevator that had more security measures than some of Lena’s own laboratories. An alert from the lift to Barbara’s electronic devices would tell her that someone was on their way. Barbara lived with her daughter Cassandra, and on occasion, you could find one of the other residents up here as well. Whether it was a business call, social or otherwise, it didn’t seem to matter.

As the lift’s doors slid open they revealed Barbara sitting upstairs speaking with Dinah. An aroma of Sicilian cuisine bubbling away told Lena that Helena was here as well. “Oh Helena’s cooking - yeah okay, where’s my plate.” Lori remarked as she dashed up the stairs that could be seen from the elevator’s doors. Nyssa and Lena followed Lori up, where a series of greetings, hugs were exchanged. “Where’s Charlie?”

“She will be popping in for dinner and then she is going to be back to her studies.”

“Wait, she’s in college now right?” Lena asked for confirmation because as she recalled Charlie, Helena’s daughter had only been a few years younger than Lori. 

Helena nodded in acknowledgment and then turned her attention to the pan. “She is, she’s a freshman at Northeastern University.”

“Aw, she went to Boston.” Lori seemed a little put out by the idea.

“Yep my girl went to Boston I tried getting her to go to NYU or even just Gotham State, but she had her heart set on Boston,” Helena replied while Nyssa chatted with Barbara and Cassandra. 

Dinah brought down the plates and added her two cents to the conversation. “I’m just glad she’s really happy with it though, I thought she might back out for a minute there.”

“Mhmm, yeah, but then she remembered she could literally teleport back here,” Helena returned with a bit of a chuckle. “Okay this is about done, Lena care to taste?”

“Absolutely, a Luthor is only as good as their tongue you know.”

Dinah snorted and quickly went to take a sip of her drink. 

Lori who was now turning several shades of red, flustered, “uh... um, I’m... I’m gonna go find uh Cass, excuse me.”

Helena watched with an amused look, “wow and I thought Nora was fast.”

“Nothing runs faster than an embarrassed child.”

“Isn’t that the truth, so how is it, Lena?” Barbara interjected as she made her way to the dining table that looked toward the open kitchen. The second floor of Barbara’s home was decorated in warm and welcoming colors - a contrast to the often cold and foreboding Gotham skyline that lingered just beyond the windows and on the balcony that wrapped around her home. The Clocktower’s signature clock face occupied three floors of the penthouse with old Gothamite brick that provided a sense of security.

Lena moved to wash the tasting spoon, “delicious as always.”

“Then it is a good thing Sicilians do not know how to cook in small numbers.”

“I have that problem too,” Nyssa admitted as she assisted Helena with plating dinner. “Never know how to make a small batch, but enough to feed an army? Yes.”

A series of chuckles from the older women while the sounds of Downton Abbey’s signature theme song floated from the living room that sat opposite of the kitchen and dining room. It could be seen, however, from where they were as a walkway connected kitchen, dining, and living areas. Lena watched Lori and Cassandra interact, Cassandra was deaf-mute and with Lori’s own hearing issues, allowed the two to bond quickly when they were younger. “I’ll get’em you go on ahead and have a seat.” Dinah told Lena as she walked by, heading across the metal walkway.

The dining room was being set up to fit everyone present, Helena and Nyssa adjusted the table. Lena arrived in time to help set the chairs and the tablecloth. Once set, seats would be taken and a sense of family and community could be felt. Perhaps it had been the years they had all spent around each other or maybe it was the food, and some might say a little of both helped to set the mood.

“This looks really good, Helena - just amazing.”

“Thanks, Di.”

“Seriously I think you just outdo your own performances each time.” Barbara complimented and Helena playfully rolled her eyes.

“Okay yes, I’m amazing let’s eat.” She insisted and helped to pass the serving bowls around, just as Charlie teleported in. “There’s my girl.”

“I could smell the pasta mid-teleport, I swear, hi mom.” Charlie gushed with a smile as she moved over to give her mom a hug, “hi aunties.” Dinah handed the serving bowl to Nyssa who first served Lena and then offered to serve Lori but Lori was a big girl and could serve herself. “Oh and Lori’s here, with her moms - hey - what a surprise!” 

Tonight’s dinner featured arancini and pasta alla norma, and of course, there was bread with garlic fused olive oil for dipping. The sounds of forks to plates, along with familial chatter around the table ushered in a beautiful start to the evening.


End file.
